Nuovo Italian cinema at the Aero

The American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre celebrates “New Italian Cinema” this weekend.

Antonello Grimaldi’s 2008 drama “Quiet Chaos,” starring Roman Polanski, and Ferzan Ozpetek’s 2008 tragedy “A Perfect Day” will screen tonight. On tap for Saturday are the 2008 comedy “Her Whole Life Ahead” and the deliciously titled 2007 offering, “Lessons in Chocolate.” Rounding out the programming Sunday are 2008’s “Talk to Me About Love” and 2007’s “Blood of the Losers.” www.americancinematheque.com.

Bel Air is the latest Southland enclave to launch its own film festival -- the aptly titled Bel Air Film Festival -- which begins tonight with a private, invitation-only event. It all opens up to the public on Saturday with a screening of the award-winning documentary short “Carissa,” executive produced by Davis Guggenheim, Oscar-winning director of “An Inconvenient Truth.” Highlights of the festival include the documentaries “Heckler,” with comic actor Jamie Kennedy, and “The Jill and Tony Curtis Story,” which follows the famed actor and his wife as they crusade to save some horses from the slaughterhouse. www.belairfilmfestival.com.

Cine Sin Fin, the 14th Annual East Los Angeles Chicano Film Festival continues this weekend. Screening tonight at the Echo Park Film Center is the documentary “East L.A. Marine,” about World War II hero Guy Gabaldon. www.echoparkfilmcenter.org

“No Subtitle Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos,” a new documentary about the lifelong friendship between two Hungarian-born cinematographers -- the late Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond -- screens tonight at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Following the screening will be a discussion with Zsigmond. www.lacma.org

Legendary avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger will be at REDCAT on Monday for “An Evening with Kenneth Anger: Dangerous Cinema.” Films include the U.S. premiere of “Ich Will!,” which features montage newsreels from the Nazi era set to the music of Anton Bruckner. www.redcat.org.

Though he’s best known as Alec Guinness’ adversary in “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” Japanese American actor Sessue Hayakawa was a popular silent film star who made more than 50 movies between 1914 and 1919, including Cecil B. DeMille’s seminal 1915 melodrama, “The Cheat.” On Monday, the UCLA Film and Television Archive is presenting three previously “lost” films that Hayakawa starred in and produced -- two of which are just fragments: 1918’s “His Birthright” and 1919’s “The Courageous Coward,” in addition to “The Man Beneath.” www.cinema.ucla.edu.

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susan.king@latimes.com